Inspirational and motivational interview with Walt Mossberg, Dr. Ed Catmull, President of Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle Corp on Steve Jobs – PART 1

Ed and Larry were extremely close with the late Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Computers.

This interview, commemorating his life contained a lot of quotes with inspiration and motivation about Steve Jobs that we can live by.

Below I have quoted and noted some of the key things from this 40 minute All Things Digital conference interview (embedded at the end of this article) that made an impact on me.

If everybody is doing this, Steve thought “What if they are wrong? What if they are all wrong?”

On Steve Job’s Passion and Perspiration

Larry:

Steve had a single mindedness and attention to detail unlike anyone I have ever seen.

Edison once said genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Steve was a god of perspiration.

How he took that [perspiration] horsepower and applied it tirelessly until the entire problem was solved. I have never seen anyone like that.

Everything Steve did…he would never let go of a problem until it was solved, even if he had to stay up all night, every night… until it was perfect. Working, working obsessively until he had a solution that was insanely great is what Steve was all about.

There are a lot of good ideas…translating a good idea to a great product is unbelievably hard. Steve translated good ideas into finished products unlike anyone in our industry.

Ed:

Steve was a master storyteller. Steve would come out with a good idea and commit to it. Roll it out to people. He wanted to hear pushback. If it didn’t work, he would go back and redo it. That’s what good storytellers do.

Passion counted. It was part of the calculus of the value of something.

Larry:

Apple became one of the most successful companies in the world, and it wasn’t even one of Steve’s goals. He wasn’t trying to be famous, to be powerful. He was obsessed with the creative process and building something that was beautiful.

Steve would not commit to something unless he was going to make it exceptional.

On thinking differently

Larry:

He possessed the brilliance of not being a follower.

If everybody is doing this, Steve thought “What if they are wrong? What if they are all wrong?”

When everybody said brick and mortar businesses were dead, Steve was saying…maybe not.

Stay tuned for part 2. Here is the video: